Contents

Overview

Every player is dealt 15 cards, and from those each person chooses one, and in
that way, every player determines their own "misery" cards. The rest of the cards are
collected by the players in a series of 14 tricks. Everybody tries to take as many cards
as possible, while avoiding all cards in their misery color.

Before Playing

Depending on the number of players, some of the cards may need to be taken out
of the deck and laid aside:

6 players

90 cards

All cards are used.

5 players

75 cards

All purple cards are removed.

4 players

60 cards

All purple cards, and all cards with the
values 12, 13, and 14 are removed from the game.

3 players

45 cards

All purple cards, and all 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,
and 14 cards are removed from the game.

Game Preparation

The cards are shuffled, and everybody chooses a random card. The player with
the highest card is the dealer. The dealer shuffles the cards, and distributes them
evenly to all players, so that everyone has 15 cards. Each player picks up his cards
and chooses a personal "misery color" from the colors of the cards in his hand. A card
from this color is placed face-down on the table in front of the player.

Why is the Chosen Color Called a Misery Color?

For a simple reason: every card of this color which you take in your tricks counts as
negative points equal to the numerical value of the card. The misery begins with the
selection of the misery card, because that card also counts as negative points. Every
player therefore begins the game with negative points, unless of course, a misery card
with a value of zero was chosen.

The Misery Cards are Revealed

After every player has chosen a misery card and placed it face-down in front of
himself, each player's chosen card is turned face-up, so that everyone can see the
misery cards of the other players. It can definitely happen that more than one player
can chose the same color.

The Game Begins

The player to the dealer's left plays any one of his 14 cards from his hand. With
this card, a trick begins, and it is called the start card. The color of this card is
called the start color.

Every other color is called a trump color, and every card in a trump color
besides a zero is called a trump card.

In turn, starting with the leader, and going clockwise, each player plays a card of
his choice from his hand. You must either follow suit, or you must play a trump
card.

How to Determine Who Wins a Trick

If everyone has played a card in the start color, the person who played the highest
card wins the trick.

If only zero cards of other colors besides the start color are played, the person who
played the highest card in the start color still takes the trick.

In every other case, if at least one trump card is played, the person who played the
highest trump card takes the trick.

If more than one person plays the same high trump card, the person who played the
first card of this value takes the trick.

The player places the won trick face-down in front of himself, and leads to the next
trick.

End of the Round

After the 14th trick, the round is over. Every player now has at least one card
(namely the misery card), and maybe cards from won tricks. To determine the points
received in a round, the negative points for the misery cards are added together, and
subtracted from the positive points earned from the other cards.

Scoring

Negative Points - Every card in a player's chosen misery color has
negative points equal to the value of the card.

Positive Points - Every card in the other colors count as one point each,
independent of their printed value.

The Next Round

After all points are written down for each player, the second round begins. There is
a new dealer (the person to the left of the previous dealer). After the cards are dealt,
the players again each choose their personal misery card and place it face-down on the
table (as was described earlier).

Game End

You can play a set number of rounds, or until a player reaches a predetermined
point total.

10 rounds are recommended, or 100 points.

Tips and Hints

About the decision for a misery color - you should neither take a color from which
you have only 2-3 cards, nor from a color of which you have many cards, but choose a
color somewhere in the middle. Naturally, the values of the colors you have play a role,
because with only high cards in a suit, you may eventually take a trick in that suit.

Choosing a misery card - you should remember that the value of the card is the
number of negative points you will have at the start. But you also need small cards in
your misery suit in order to not take a trick in it.

As the starting player of a trick, you should avoid leading the higher cards of your
misery suit. Near the end of a round, playing cards of your own misery suit is
unpleasant, because often the other players do not have many more cards of that color,
and therefore your cards will become trump cards, and are more likely to win a
trick.

You must pay attention to trumping with your own misery color, because other
players, who still have to play may also trump with lower cards of the same color, thus
adding to your misery.

Every person determines their own misery color, which lasts for the entire
round.

The start color is determined anew each time a trick is begun. The trump color is
dependent upon the start color, and is likewise determined anew each trick.

Example of a Scoring Round

Axel has chosen a red 4 as his misery card. He has taken a red 2 and 5 along with
114 cards of other colors in his tricks. Axel recieves 14 points for those 14 cards, and
from that he subtracts his red cards' value (4+2+5=11). Therefore Axel has a total of
three positive points.

Lore has a blue 1 as her misery card. She took no tricks, so therefore she receives
one negative point (corresponding to the blue 1).

Ulli chose a red zero as his misery card. Among the cards he took, he has three
red cards - a 1, 3, and 14 - along with 5 other cards. His total equals his positive points
(5) minus his negative points (0+1+3+14=18), giving him negative 13 points.

Doris has chosen a green 4, and has taken one trick, none of the four cards in
which which are of her misery color. Therefore her point total is zero (4-4= 0) but that
is always better than getting negative points.

Example of a Trick

For all the following examples:

Axel - Red misery color

Lore - Blue misery color

Ulli - Red misery color

Doris - Green misery color

The declaration of the current point totals serves as an assessment of each
person's performance in the example. In a real game points are not totaled after every
trick, instead they are totaled at the end of a round.

Ulli: blue 14 (start color)
Doris: violet 6 (trump color)
Axel: green 6 (trump color)
Lore: green 4 (trump color)
Doris recieves the trick. The card she played was a different color than blue, and was
not a zero. It counts as the highest trump card. The green six is counted as lower as it
was played later. In any case, this trick counts as 8 negative points.